Plus One Lap used to be all about cyclocross, now it's my dumping grounds for anything cycling.

Monday, August 02, 2010

Dear Velo-Orange,

Velo-Orange has some really interesting parts and can be a great place to find unique new parts for a bike thats being restored.

I've bought a number of parts from them in the past for various builds, and even put their square taper BB on my Cervelo P3 triathlon/time trial bike.

With that said, their prices and products can be ridiculous. Take this centerpull brake for example (image above): link $150 for a pair? This looks identical (as I'm sure it's supposed to) to a Mafac Racer brake. This is all well and good (this isnt a rant on copyright infringement) but $150??

This set of Mafac Racers just sold on eBay for $30 shipped.

These brakes sell all the time on eBay and at your local bike co-op. While Paul components may have started the trend of tweaking a tested design (of another Mafac brake) and tripling the price, at least Paul improved upon the design in a major way allowing for more adjustment.

I understand that having parts made and importing them can be an expensive process, but why recreate parts that are easily accessible and thus not too expensive?

3 comments:

Perhaps you should have a go at buying the tooling or paying for new tooling, getting the shop and business going, and divide the startup costs by the tens of thousands of people who are in the market for centerpull brakes. I'll be the first to buy spankin' new set of brakes for less than $150!

Actually Cane Creek did something similar; they re-issued Dia Compe's sidepull brakes, made the bolt out of titanium, put modern pad holders on, machined a bit off the front arm, and sold them for well over $200 I believe. I bought a couple sets when they were clearing them out later. They got the tooling when they bought out Dia Compe.

As I stated, I'm that it costs a lot to have these brakes built; I'm sure that VO isnt making a killing. My original question still stands: "why recreate parts that are easily accessible and thus not too expensive?"

Slap on new pads to a set of Mafac Racers and you'll have a set of brakes that will stop very well.